green to 100

A horse, a dog and a hammock…

June 29-July 1, 2015

This week we spent 3 days in Camp Creek State Park in WV. It was a really nice park and we had the horse campground all to ourselves.

After the mare squabble a few rides ago we’d decided I would ride with my friend and the 3 hour haul in the trailer with the girls side-by-side would do them good. I don’t travel in a living quarters trailer and my camping is pretty primitive, so it’s ok to horse-truck-trailer-pool. I like to sleep in my hammock- takes up very little space, easy to set up, and more comfortable than the floor- as long as it doesn’t rain I’m happy under the stars.

I took the farthest corral (since i don’t have a rig) and enjoyed my first night hanging between some trees next to the corral with Peggy-Sue my ace (though it was her first time) camping dog right at the base of the tree. All you really need: a horse, a dog and a hammock.

We pulled in on Monday, got settled and did an easy 8.5 mile ride getting acquainted with the park. We met Michelle who had ridden there before and the four of us were a nice group. The mares were a little off-key on the first day, or was it the riders? Nothing to report- just an energy that wasn’t exactly relaxed and easy. This was Khaleesi’s longest trailer ride, to end up in a foreign place, put in a foreign pen, then ridden on foreign trails, adding in a foreign horse (Michelle’s sweet gelding). She was pretty good, but I was paying attention all the time.

The park is really pretty- lots of waterfalls and variety in trails. We had lunch at an old farm property called “Almost Heaven” where there was a primitive camp with a covered picnic area and beautiful views. We rode about 13 miles together on Tuesday. Khaleesi had really hit a sweet spot that day; I was more relaxed and she seemed to figure out what we were doing and was great in all places in the group (front, back, middle) she didn’t threaten, and even seemed fine with Mireyah (the other mare). After returning to camp a little earlier than we’d thought and our horses still having energy, Carrington and I decided to head out for a quick hour ride to run them around a bit while the other two relaxed by the creek.

We did 6 more miles in just over an hour. Khaleesi and Abaco had been doing well together this trip – they may actually be related, we’re not completely certain- (also two horses is simpler than 4) so we enjoyed some stress free romping on the trails. We trotted and even cantered and really let them go- I didn’t have to ask twice, Khaleesi seemed to love running the trails together which was really nice to see (my biggest worry about her was she would be a slow-poke!). Her canter is really coming along and when she finds it is a joy! We led, followed, and traveled side-by-side at all paces and after 19 miles she was still doing great. I am encouraged that we really will be ready for a LD ride next month!

Tuesday night we ate dinner and laughed and drank until the storm came in. I am always thankful for the time I get to spend with my trail riding girlfriends- it’s a special bond we share and it doesn’t matter if we see each other regularly like my local friends, or once or twice a year like my out of state friends, it’s always a good time.

Carrington kept getting weather alerts so we knew severe thunderstorms were possible. As the rumbling came closer and some lightning flashed in the distance we put our plan into action and loaded our 3 horses onto Carringtons (3-horse) trailer (Michelle loaded Mac onto her own) and climbed into Nancy’s to wait out the worst of it. It was amazing how fast those horses loaded as the storm got closer. You didn’t have to ask any of them twice! They sensed something.

After it passed we put them back out but I hung my hammock in a trailer that night as the rain continued until early morning.

Wednesday morning was pretty- cool but no rain and we had breakfast, coffee and saddled up for a short ride to Neely Knob before driving home. We saw more beautiful trails with Rhododendron canopy, creek crossings and some nice views as we got toward the top. It was a short ride, but just right before getting loaded up and heading home.

I wish I had something more dramatic to report, but alas my mare made me really proud and is still coming along well.

In camp she was quiet and even though she was the farthest away from us and the other horses (she could still see Mac), she didn’t complain and was a good sport.

Her boots stayed on perfectly and we didn’t loose one in the entire 3 days of riding.

I worked on my Jedi skills when able and started tuning in to our beat, tempo, and which shoulder is moving L R L R L R or L H R H L H R H L H R H instead of 1 2 3 4 sometimes so I can get better at knowing what I’m doing with what she’s doing. I switched diagonals on our longer trots too.

On the trails she’s not perfect, but her manners are still improving. She did pull the stop and not want to go forward trick a few times- only if she was the leader on new trails. If we were in territory we’d covered before or if she was not the lead horse she did not stop. Each time I was able to move her forward with little drama.

She didn’t kick out once although I think she considered it twice. I like to think she thought it over and made the right decision both times because she didn’t raise a leg.

I have a few pictures (below) I enjoyed seeing where she just didn’t look quite happy and well behaved. I think they sum up her figuring out how this trail riding with others thing works… The other horses are normal, then there’s Khaleesi like the toddler: she isn’t 100%, but she’s not dangerous either.

For the future, I’m hoping to start pushing our speed on a ride each week just to get used to more trotting out for longer periods and in exciting news I’ve sold my tiny ‘death trap’ trailer and am picking up a new (used) one next week that will haul both girls together and is not so heavy. I am now 8 weeks away from the Iron Mountain Jubilee ride that I’d like to be her first 25 miler! We are moving faster than expected this summer!

The force… takes a lot of energy…

Sunday, June 28, 2015

After two days of pouring down rain, Sunday brought partly cloudy skies and mild breezy temps. Perfect for a Faygo day. I hadn’t been on her in more than a week, and just hopping into her saddle (the one I bought this spring- which I love!) felt like going home.

Khaleesi is fun to ride, and it’s rewarding to train her and work up her trail skills, but Faygo is (basically) fantastic and a joy to ride.

My first love... my soul mate mare... — My first love… my soul mate mare…

As I headed out the dirt road through the hay field I decided to put some of my better riding (Jedi) skills to work and see how much I could communicate with her through energy and keep my seat more still. Faygo and I have a few solid riding years between us and already have pretty good communication. I found that she picked up my signals really well. I thought more about our pace, she is almost always in a 4-beat gait unless she’s cantering because the fox-trot is also 4-beats and she doesn’t hard trot. [1….2….3….4….1….2…..3….4].

I was able to work on changing her speed with my mind and had some luck with that. My upper body steering was also better although her issue is not so much “What? I didn’t understand you.” as it is “What? I don’t want to do THAT… we should do THIS.” And because I don’t usually do as she asks she assumes I’m a bit of an idiot and she says it pretty loudly so I can understand better.

She’s not at all dangerous- just has her own mind and likes to be sure you hear her.

We had a lovely ride, we went at a good clip and averaged just under 5mph for about 9 miles. The breeze was nice and we enjoyed the time.

One thing I learned… this Jedi stuff can be kind of exhausting. At a certain point I felt pretty drained from all the energy and mind-melding. Especially with this mare! After a nice canter up a green hill I wanted her to slow it down and I really worked on letting all the hot energy go and relaxing down my breathing and my tension. I felt her slow her pace a bit with me. It was neat.

On our way out I noticed my trail that used to be basically clear has been slowing creeping in with downs and vines. I’ve done some cutting and sawing, but the limbs are gradually dropping lower and there are a few spots I decided are almost getting dangerous.

I need to come through here with a saw and just clean this area up soon.

On the way back I was trying to pay attention to exactly what areas were in the most need… and remembering “duck” here, weave a bit here, oh look out ahead for… BAM.

I got a decent branch right in the face. Across my check by my eye- then slightly caught up in my helmet straps.

I saw stars I think… for just a moment…

I Jedi energy and serious rein pulled for Faygo (who was antsy to GET HOME) to STOP RIGHT NOW PLEASE. And wondered if I was going to pass out… nope… hurts, but I’m coming back around… can I see out of that eye? … uh… yes! that’s good.

Ok, I’m coming back here to do some trail work next week.

Thankfully I had a half frozen water still and asked her to please walk with me a bit (very hard for a forward mare who’d been hot-footing the whole ride to now, at the very end slow down. But she kind of did. She has little patience for incompetence.

With ice packs and an anti-inflammatory my eye is slightly swollen but much better than I’d thought. My Jedi powers are still growing, and this week is a 3-day camping trip for Khaleesi and the girls in West Virginia! Onward!

Riding Lesson

Friday, June 26, 2015

I haven’t spent much time on trotting horses and decided this spring I could use a lesson to improve my riding skills. If we’re going to ride 100 miles over 20-plus hours, I think it would help us both if I were more balanced and efficient up in the saddle.

The barn I’d been to once last year for a mini-lesson with Karin is a long haul and I wasn’t sure if it was worth dragging Khaleesi down 90 minutes of winding mountain roads for an hour lesson- then 90 minutes back. We’d talked about just driving down (people only) and riding a school horse as well to get some experience… In the end I’d just put it off.

We have a friend who comes to Bath for the summers who is a really nice rider and practices dressage in Florida- she’s much closer to home and said she would be glad to have us come to her arena and give us some tips. We took her up on that offer without delay and went yesterday morning.

Khaleesi and I learned a ton from that first lesson. Many things I had heard, read, or knew in my head, but the arena environment gave us a chance to try some concepts out without dodging limbs or navigating rocks. Just like slow can equal fast in learning new things, simple can be tricky.

With all the things we can do together- one would think trotting around the ring near the rail would not be a challenge!

Think again…

We started talking about the gait patterns (nothing groundbreaking there) and counting “1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4” with our walk (which is a four beat gait- each hoof hitting the ground at a different time) and increasing or decreasing speed with intent and energy first and not using seat or reins if possible. Could I change my intent and communicate that to her in the softest way possible and she would understand?

I call this the Yoda training… we are working on our Jedi skills!

So “1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 1 — 2 — 3 — 4” can become “12341234” or “1…..2……3…….4……..1………2………..3………..4”

Then to trot, can I NOT cluck to her or give leg pressure, but can I just change my intent from “1-2-3-4” to “1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2” (as the trot is a 2 beat gait)? Will she feel that energy shift and pick up her speed?

Actually- kind of… yes… my Jedi energy skills are very green but I’m working on using the force!

Also circles- we don’t do a lot of circles. I have heard they are really helpful to keeping a horse flexible which is good for everything. So after starting at a nice walk pace (1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4) Pam asks us to do a circle in the next corner.

BUT- I can only move my upper body, turn my head to look where we’re going and move my shoulders- and not my seat?

Keep my hips in line with her at all times. If she doesn’t get it, a little rein is ok.

I kept naturally moving my hips with my upper body- and a little rein turned into me crossing my hands over her whithers. Though somehow that seems like just an exaggeration of the request- when I got myself more under control and only moved my shoulders and head she immediately “got it” and did a nice circle.

At one point we stopped in the center and talked about how our shoulders are connected. My shoulders can help move her shoulders. As I sat there and experimented with how that felt in my own shoulder, she stepped over with her corresponding shoulder- for a brief moment I DID feel like a Jedi!

I also learned to “sit-sit” during the trot to change which diagonal I was on – which I’d read would be beneficial to our future long miles of trotting as we do endurance. How I understand it now is that she is tossing me up when she is on one side, and if we trot for an extended period I need to switch which side she’s on when I go up in the air. It would make her more tired than necessary to always have me up or down on her same side. Sheesh- I’m not even good at explaining this yet!

The good news is that I have a fresh young horse who is willing to work with me, willing to learn, and very patient in the process. She is a blank slate and she seemed to really enjoy the work we did together.

What I found (and it didn’t surprise me- it’s why I went there) is that I’m giving her all kind of off-balance confusing signals with my hands and seat – and I’m not talking about clipping branches and navigating over and under logs- even just how my hands hold the reins as we walk around the arena was confusing to her. Simple things that are not hard to adjust if you know you’re doing them.

Also- my gaited horse saddle doesn’t really put me in a good position for balance while trotting- which is one reason I think I’m not getting great rhythm and balance when we trot on the trail. I get a few strides that are good- then we get ‘off’ a bit. I have to work against the saddle and usually end up on my butt, which puts my weight back and legs forward, which confuses her again. Considering she isn’t gaiting right now, I might dig through the tack room and see if any of the old english trail saddles fit her and experiment with one of them to see if it helps me.

I am so glad we did this, and so thankful to Pam for sharing her knowledge with us. Khaleesi was a good sport, and as we stopped to talk about these concepts she stood calmly licking and chewing and yawning to say this was not stressful and as we worked together she seemed to appreciate how I was trying and she was trying too. What a nice way to work on our relationship!

I hope to be able to put some of this into practice on the trail, and also to continue to visit Pam and get more input and take a few minutes in a simple arena where we can focus on what we’re doing together with less distraction.

Here is a minute video of some of our work. It ends with Pam asking us to circle, with me getting completely discombobulated – and Khaleesi heading to the center of the arena instead of circling and the last thing I say laughing is “Look at me… I’m out of control”.

Happy Trails… well… mostly…

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Khaleesi is on the trail, on the trailer, and on the road to her first LD ride. She trailers well, has been camping, goes out with me alone, crosses bridges, rivers and any kind of terrain I can imagine we’d find in nature… she basically gets along with others on the trail, and her longest ride so far was a nice 16 mile loop on a pretty hot day that included a big climb and some rocky terrain (though nothing like the OD trails yet!).

I am happy with her renegade boots program. The more we use them the more reliable they are- after about 15 miles on our last ride a velcro came loose and since we were back on the farm already I pulled the boot off instead of fixing it, but through swamps, rocks, rivers, walk, trot and canter they stayed on over 4 hours and 15 miles.

rest stop for a bite at mile 8 on our long ride

Challenges we’ve been working on are coming along:

Bitting– I started her in a bit without realizing she had wolf teeth (do mares get those??? apparently they do and that was a learning curve for me… I thought somewhere I was told mares don’t have wolf teeth) this didn’t help her aversion to the bit and she would dance around the barn with her head in the air when I even picked up the bridle/bit. After removing her wolf teeth (which I’m sure you’ve all read about months ago) the habit stayed and she’s been tough to bridle though she was getting very marginally better.

One of my mentor friends Nancy mentioned reading an article where the trainer worked with someone and a hard to bit horse and told the rider that his hands were too tense, that you have to put in the bit from your heart each time. The next time I relaxed, assumed she would be fine with the bit and imagined doing it from my heart – and voila- she takes the bit with no fuss now.

What I learned: even if your experience tells you the situation calls for a ‘fight’, try to approach the situation ‘from your heart’ and you may end the conflict before it starts. Even if it’s still a struggle, you are more relaxed and that always helps!

Refusing to go forward on the trail– this annoying habit I had hoped was inexperience and stemmed from her lack of hours on the trail. I try to remember in her first 10 trail rides or so that she probably thought after about an hour of working for me that This is enough… I’m ready to go home and eat grass and I just have to get her used to the fact that she was out until she gets home. On my schedule. I loved Madison’s advice of backing her up… down the trail… and I’ve used that with a little prodding. I also assume she will do what I ask, and insist she does it, but I try to always keep my calm and breathe. She still does this but the duration is shorter now… with a couple kicks or a slap on the saddle with my leather strings she moves on forward again.

What I learned: Get creative when you need to solve a problem- sometimes you need to back your way into it! And if you know the way forward is right, you can insist, but always keep adrenaline down and stay calm but firm.

Khaleesi tied to a tree during a rest break... — Khaleesi tied to a tree during a rest break…

Bad manner on the trail– I would call this kicking, but I don’t think she really has a kicking issue now and that’s the end result of the more subtle plain old bad trail manners. Bad manners include trail-hogging, pinning her ears when another horse passes or gets too close, crowding, not wanting to stand and wait for another horse to drink etc… I still think it’s likely much of this stems from her not respecting enough that when I’m riding her, I’m the boss of our team and she is not in charge of our response to the other horse-rider teams. I try to keep my eyes open for small signals that she thinks she is the boss of me- in the field, when I’m leading her, and especially when I ride her. She’s a pretty strong headed and confident mare which I love. I want a strong confident horse to be my endurance partner, but she needs good leadership. I have to be a stronger-headed, more confident mare!

How is it going? She is fantastic with one other horse at a time, especially (as most of my friends have) geldings. I am getting more control over weaving around the trail and crowding and asking her to ride to one side or another. We can ride side-by-side with one other horse pretty well. She does ok with groups of three or more but it spreads her focus more and takes a little more managing from me. Our biggest challenge right now however is another mare (what a surprise right!?) and they have seemed to have gotten off on the wrong hoof. Since our “no kicking” post, Khaleesi hasn’t tried to kick a horse, and her ear pinning has improved as well……

With one exception: on our previous ride, as we were working on riding almost side-by-side with the other mare, I was watching closely how Khaleesi was doing, her ears were forward and I was thinking “Yeah! how great is this! She’s not bothered at all” BAM I felt a kick to my shin from the other mare. That I was not expecting, and I hadn’t been really watching her as I was more concerned about my horse being the one who would kick. Khaleesi immediately spun around and put two back feet up toward the other mare and we all pulled ourselves together… (we lost a boot in that acrobatic moment). One step forward, two steps back (or maybe three!).

two mares separated by the gelding… ears tell the real story!

The girls are going to have to get it sorted out (and hopefully not in a kicking match!) so we rode them again leaving safe distances and kept an eye out. The ride went without incident, but the girls are not entirely happy with one another. We will be taking them on a camping trip next week and decided to put the two girls on the trailer together for the ride over. They will be spending a lot of trail time together as we are good friends- so I’m sure this too shall pass.

What I am learning? Get on top of small problems quickly to avoid bigger ones… and it’s a long process! Be patient and keep taking small steps. Don’t give up! And sometimes the thing you aren’t expecting is the thing that gets you!

I am enjoying getting to know my girl and lucky to have some horse-savvy friends willing to babysit us in our first group trail rides who help me get experience with her around other horses – which for this horse has been more challenge than riding her alone! This summer of riding has been really rewarding, and I have some wonderful people to share it with.

Khaleesi rolls and takes a break after her longest trail ride thus far

Next post will be about our first “riding lesson”… stay tuned!

Run Through the Jungle

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

On our camping trip last week we had discussions about being stuck in tents and trailers with those who snore. I told Madison (we hung hammocks in a stall) that I could not guarantee a snore-free experience because I had no idea if I snore. The next day she exclaimed “Nope- Jaime doesn’t snore… but she hums.”

I guess I’m a music-head.

Which brings me to thinking about how many of my blog posts have ended up with music themed titles- because my experiences bring to mind a song and it gets stuck in my head. Thus often ending up the title of my blog. [You Get What You Need… Time, Truth & Heart… She’s Got a Ticket to Ride… I’ll Follow You Into the Dark… Over the River… etc] Today I was hearing CCR as we made our way off the mountain.

I’ve been getting out to the barn around 6am this week because #1 it’s just too hot, and #2 Ed is off this week so I’ve been wanting to get some time with him in the days. As I’d really like to get Khaleesi in shape for some LD riding at the end of the summer, she’s my first priority right now. Faygo is getting maintenance attention at the moment which means a ride or two a week.

Monday we had a pretty uneventful ride. She is still occasionally doing the “I don’t want to go forward” thing and trying to turn me back toward home. I have tried Madison’s suggestion of backing her and it’s a great idea. She DOES get tired of backing up the way I want to go and will turn around to move forward. I also now remember to carry a little leather strap that I drive her forward with and between the two we are getting through these episodes pretty easily. The leather isn’t to “beat” her with just a few light slaps on her shoulders is enough pressure to get her to realize that YES- we’re doing this.

We’ve been doing about 6-8 miles, just enough to get out and keep in the habit.

Wednesday we headed up the mountain- I wanted to get her to do some climbing and so we took a nice trail that I’ve worked on clearing out that I call my “blue trail” and it goes about half way up the mountain to some remote areas even the hunters don’t get to (the old logging road is rough, but I keep it passable by horse) and it’s really pretty. We loop back home on my “main trail” and it makes about 6 miles with a good climb.

First unexpected thing: I “lost” my woods connecter trail. I wasn’t overly concerned but there were small branches down and it wasn’t as obvious as usual. I have blue flags marking the way, but I’ve done this so many times now I wasn’t worried. It’s nice open woods and easy to wander through with good visibility. We ended up passing the little meadow where I pick up the trailhead and having to backtrack down and check my GPS.

The overgrown trail with briars at my meadow trailhead

Upon arriving at the meadow trailhead I was shocked at the growth since the last time I’d been up there- less than a month ago. That visit the berry briars were beginning to take over where my trail goes and I’d gotten off to do some good cutting to get through more easily. As I saw where I wanted to go- indeed it WAS A JUNGLE. I hate to push through briars and stopped to dig through my packs for my clippers- might as well cut them back a touch. As I sat there, dogs at our feet wondering what to do next, me digging through many different zipper compartments I heard Karen Chaton’s voice: “You also need to know where in your pack everything IS because you don’t want to be wasting time digging for something you need when you need it”.

Do I even have my clippers?

Now with two horses… two saddles… two different packs that fit the saddles… shoot- the clippers could be in Faygo’s pack… or did I stick them in Jackson’s pack when I rode him the other day…

So much for ‘be prepared’ – a lot you’ve learned thus far…

What is that… sounds like a ‘buzz hummer’ bee or fly… you know those big slow ones that…

RATTLESNAKE RATTLE….

GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO

The snake had been just at our feet- right by the dogs too. I’d been sitting there too long for his (or her) comfort apparently and it scared the living crap out of me. Forget the clippers- we forged right on immediately partly into the briars, then back into the more open woods to bypass, but those woods were messy with old branches, grapevines and rocks and we were sinking into layers as we picked our way as quickly as was safe through.

Khalessi was perfect- she went exactly where I asked without complaint (I think she knew we were in survival mode at the moment and she didn’t question me). Dogs THANKFULLY completely in tow and after I yelled at them to “LETS GO NOW!! LEAVE IT” they high tailed it with me and did not bother the snake.

I am SO thankful that I did not find the clippers. My intent was to find them and then hop down and walk through that part of the trail clipping back the briars. I would have dropped out of the saddle right onto that snake’s head. I’m thankful I found a pair of used half chaps at the OD sale and now wear them when I ride (that would have helped some). Also thankfully it was an early cool morning and that snake had to be feeling a bit slow. I am certain God was watching out for me this morning. Important lesson learned today- don’t get off if it’s so thick you can’t SEE the ground. I am not going back through that spot until the jungle has died back- and I’ll get it back under control in the late Fall/Winter. That trailhead is closed for me right now!

Continuing on the trail I was still amazed at what a jungle I was picking through. I’ve ridden this trail for a few years now and have never seen it this thick. It’s at this point after fleeing from the snake that I started hearing that lick from Run Through the Jungle and the song kept in my head the rest of the ride.

Nothing was as bad as the snake meadow, but the footing was particularly soggy and we often were sinking and slipping around in sections. I also found a ton of downs that forced us on small detours into the woods. It was a good time for focusing on precision steering and Khaleesi was starting to get better at anticipating which way I wanted to thread through the trees.

At one point I was looking for the best way to cross a few logs that were down and she started to step on her own. I thought “ok- she’s got this… maybe”- but no… she slipped a bit and backtracked, got a foot off balance in the mud and we went all the way down (belly on trail!). It was slow motion and not that big a deal, but it was our first time going down together. She was gold all the way- she went down on all fours, got her front legs under her and then waited there. I considered jumping off, but she took my hesitation as the green light and she popped back up with me still on top. She was a little flustered for a moment but we were fine.

I am glad to have the chance to go through these small things together and get experience. I am also glad that she’s so solid even as a green horse that she keeps her wits about her.

We were both “done” for the day as we approached my “main trail” and kept a pretty good trot as footing allowed most of the way home.

In other good news, this is ride 3 that we haven’t lost a hoof boot. The rides have been shorter and I doubt we are home free, but I think we’re getting the fit down better now. We’ve also been riding mainly alone lately which is a nice thing for our connection and communication. I did not think I would be able to take her out on the trail solo this soon and am so pleased at what a good trail horse she’s making. I can’t be happier at how levelheaded and confident she is. I didn’t think I could get another trail horse as good as Faygo- and while Khaleesi has a ways to go, she shows fantastic potential. Gotta love a good mare!

Hopefully we can get together with some friends and start upping our mileage as well soon.

Meanwhile, I’m staying on my cleaner trails and roads for a while, and I’ll be singing this all day-

Better run through the jungle….. run through the jungle… better run through the jungle… whoa don’t look back to see…

Take Away

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

I’ve been thinking about what I learned from volunteering at the OD ride for a couple of days now. As much as it was hard to be there without a horse watching everyone else doing what I wanted to be doing, it was an invaluable experience and I’m so glad I volunteered. I’d heard it said before that one of the best ways to learn about endurance is to volunteer at a ride and honestly if I’d had a horse for that ride I would not have taken the time to volunteer- but I will join the chorus now in encouraging even people who participate but haven’t volunteered at a ride to scribe for a vet.

So… what exactly did I learn…

So many nuggets and other things that are hard to put into words that fall into the experience category — I may not pull up until I have a situation to need the information in the future. However, I’ll see if I can do some relevant take aways here.

Take advantage of any talks, seminars, or lectures they offer.

The Friday afternoon before the ride, one of the vets had a talk offered on “How to get your horse through ride weekend”. I left vet-in early to go to this and was shocked to see only a handful of people out of 168 riders plus crew at camp.

The vet was an experienced endurance rider who knew the course and went over very specific details about the challenges of this particular ride on this particular weekend (heat and humidity). She talked about how to best use the course to your advantage and went over the maps with us (where there were decent streams for cooling off, where you might stop a minute in a pasture for some grass, what climbs were like and what time of the day you’d be likely to do them- how to use your energy and save your horse on them, where you might be able to make up some time); she highly suggested crews get ice coolers to the vet checks the night before because the water available on a hot day will often not be cool enough to cool the horse down fast enough, she talked about the need to front-load hydration and some practical ways to do it; she talked about how to take care of yourself- the rider- in the heat. She also answered questions.

She rode that weekend on Percheron crosses (NOT arabians, so she really had to pay attention as Percherons are certainly not predisposed to these conditions) she had a lot of experience with keeping a horse healthy and finishing a hard ride. My vet checked her horses both times she went through Bird Haven and they were in good shape both times, and she completed the ride. I also noticed one of the 100 top ten finishers was a man who asked some good questions at the talk and his horse (at 1am) looked good as well. Considering how many horses didn’t complete I believe some of them might have benefitted from the information- even if it was a reminder to them.

The front-runners often look good… until they don’t… (Sometimes the tortoise does win in the end)

Staying in one place- having information come in as horse-rider teams go through the ride I saw first hand how many people were moving ahead, making good time and then got pulled. Conversely I saw some who seemed to lag a bit behind, but did complete- which in the end puts them ahead. What I overheard about this in conversation (yes, I eavesdropped as much as possible in hopes of gleaning any grain of information possible) is that some of the “turtle” riders were behind because they’d take a few extra minutes in a grass field and let their horse graze, or standing them in a stream to cool off, they might have even taken a few extra minutes at the hold to let their horse get more recovered and rested.

Granted- the top finishers were fast, but I saw that those people knew their horses, and probably had special horses that were mentally and physically predisposed to do well as well as mentally and physically conditioned. Know your horse, and pay attention to early signs.

What the early signs are…

Considering I don’t often ride my horses to their physical limits and I’m not a vet, I haven’t often seen what a horse looks like when they are showing signs of dehydration and fatigue.

I got to see what skin tenting looks like at an “A”, “A-“, “B”, and “C” and anything less than a “C” is not an early sign anymore. I learned that and “A” and “A-” are great, and that a “B” is ok, it’s hot and you’re working hard, your horse needs a drink and you should pay attention, and that a “C” is not the end of the world, but you’d better take a minute and let your horse “pull himself together” before you continue or you will be in trouble.

I saw what “impulsion” looks like at all those grades as well. I saw horses come in from the same ride heads up, willing to jog, eyes clear and alert and I saw horses come in whose rider had to jerk and drive them to jog out, heads down while standing, not so alert, eyes dull, and I saw a lot of in between. I also saw for the first time what dark urine looks like from a horse who had passed the vet check officially and seemed to be ok- that team took a rider-option and pulled themselves out because the urine was so dark it was a warning sign they felt not worth ignoring. I saw what a horse who was tying up goes through and how scary that can be (thankfully that happened at the vet station where she was able to get immediate treatment). I saw the difference between a tired horse and a horse that just isn’t “fit to continue”.

Be prepared!

You have an advantage if you are ready for as much as possible. The morning might be cool, it might rain, it could be blistering hot in the mid-afternoon, and by 1am it was chilly. Have layers and be ready for extremes. One of the horses cut a digital artery on the trail and though the rider was a vet she didn’t have what she needed on hand- other riders who stopped to help her had a maxi-pad, vet wrap, and duct tape and those three things might have saved her horse’s life (I don’t know how that situation turned out, but she was able to ride the horse far enough to get trailered to Leesburg for emergency surgery and I never heard what the outcome was).

When I rode around as a passenger on a motorcycle a lifetime ago, the motorcycles folks always said you dress for the crash, not for the ride. I put in many hours on the back of a bike- even doing distance rides and weekend trips. I never was involved in a crash of any kind, but I wore kevlar, boots and a helmet every time just the same. Similarly it’s rare you need emergency supplies, but you could save someone (or someone’s horse’s) life and it might just be your own.

You don’t want to load down your horse- so be smart about it, many things can have multiple use. Duct tape seems like a given at least- Karen Chaton had the tip to wrap some duct tape around a pen so you don’t have to carry a huge roll- and you have a pen in case you need to leave a note for someone somewhere….

Take care of yourself.

Around 2am I saw a rider come in whose horse looked fantastic but the rider was not doing well. She had been dizzy and nauseous for a couple hours and hadn’t felt hungry so in all the adrenaline she’d neglected to eat and drink. She had 6 miles to go and though the vets and her team pumped her with warm chicken soup and encouraged her, and she did leave for the finish on horseback, she wasn’t having fun anymore and had spiraled into a pretty negative place. Another Karen Chaton tip comes to mind: eat before you’re hungry and drink before you’re thirsty.

Also keep you own electrolytes up- but don’t overdo it. I heard a story from some of the vets of a rider who was doing the calvary challenge (you have to carry everything on your own and no crew) who wanted to be sure she had enough electrolytes so she took salt pills (which were lighter than trying to haul gatorade) – only she took way too many and was losing fluids due to an imbalance. I’ve heard of some great electrolyte capsules on the market- but take them as directed!

Drag riders have a job.

Although I think drag riding is advertised as a way to see some of the trail without being on the clock and as a fun ride experience (it should be both of those things), they are responsible for coming in shortly after the last riders to be sure no one was hurt on the trail. They are fresher and start from various checkpoints to be sure they are in a position with good horses and riders to get help if needed. They were sent out (with fresh horses) 10 minutes after the last rider, and at the next (last) checkpoints the drag riders came in 2 hours after the last 100 mile rider came through and in the words of someone who saw them “wouldn’t have realized it if they had come upon a mastodon”.

They were apparently enjoying a lovely night ride, and not really doing their job. If something had happened to one of the last few riders they would not have been there to help. Also, a station can’t be shut down until everyone has cleared through- including drag riders. So it was inconsiderate of them to keep volunteer staff and a vet waiting 2 hours for them while they wandered along. My understanding is they had no issues and were not lost- just not in any hurry and enjoying themselves.

It is likely they didn’t understand the importance of what their task was and that people had to wait on them. So if I ever ride drag, I’m glad I heard the story to know the appropriate way to be a good, responsible drag rider.

Smaller things… for me personally…

* Carry a GPS. Many of the vet stations and parts of the trail go over places you’ve already been- in the worst case if you get lost you can at least get yourself back to where you were. Especially in the dark! I heard some of the vets talking about a rider who got lost at night and was in an area that can’t be accessed by vehicle without forest service keys (which the ride staff don’t have on hand). That rider was safe but did end up spending the night in the woods alone completely off the ride route.

* Pop-up tent is BRILLIANT. Between downpours and intense sun having shelter at a major crewing point seemed to be a great idea. Many of the crews had a tent up and it was great for the crew while waiting in the elements, but if the horse was exhausted and overheating a pop-up tent is the only way to be sure you’ll get some relief from the sun (you can’t guarantee a shady tree, and you can’t know you’ll be at the right place at the right time to get the shade- especially if your rider comes through at 2 different points of the day. Also, if as a rider I had to spend 45 minutes at a hold that was downpouring- it would really make my day to get out of it for a bit- maybe dry off and regroup. Worth the investment- and it is great to have at base camp too, for all the same reasons.

* Don’t give your ride card baggie to the scribe!!! That was a small pet peeve I picked up through the day. I have a clipboard and a pen and am busy following my vet to be sure I have all the information correct. I don’t have a third hand for the baggie and if I stuff it in my pocket you may not get it back.

ALSO– riders try to have your card open to the correct place on your ride card and TIMERS: write the “in” time under the correct number slot for that vet check station! I saw a lot of screwed up rider cards where the station numbers were screwed up and that can then be confusing for the vet scribe who wonders why there is no “in” time at the vet check number section you are in. It’s not so hard to get it right- but as a rider, if you give the card ready to go in the right place you have a better chance of a clean and correct rider card at the end!

* Thank the vets and volunteers. I have to admit when I rode in my first ride at the No Frills, there was so much in my head this did not occur to me. But there were a lot of riders who took a moment to say a personal “Thank you for being here today to make sure we have a safe and enjoyable day”- and those little moments were such an unexpected gift!

* My crew is going to be A-MA-ZING 🙂 I highly advise anyone who has non-endurance-riding crew folks in mind to come out and work an event. Sarah and Madison were 100% invested in the day and we were all there learning together. They are now way ahead in understanding what endurance is about, what goes into a successful and not-so-succesful day, and they were real troopers to do the 100 mile over 24 hours with no real sleep marathon. Madison’s vet said she was so fantastic, and Sarah got to see everything front row by being an in/out timer, she was also closer to the actual crew area and saw more of what crews were actually doing out there. I am so excited to have a team like that forming in advance!

The rest…

I know there are a TON more things I picked up. Small bits of conversation… stories told under the vet tent… watching a rider or a crew member do something unexpected…

It’s a great community of people who care about each other and their horses more than they care about their time or even finishing. I am so glad to slowly become part of that community and I think the Old Dominion rides have been a great introduction. They are run really well with very competent people in charge- as a rider and a volunteer I’ve had great experiences. They take care of each other and stay flexible when needs arise.

I’m torn between my desire to ride as much as possible and knowing that volunteering is a great way to learn and connect with that community. I’m excited to be part of an amazing and inspiring group of people.

Bird Haven

Saturday, June 13, 2015

3:45am: I have to pee. Really we could sleep until 4. Our shift starts at Bird Haven at 6:30am, and we want to see the start of the 100 at 5:15. But we don’t have to be up this early for that. Doesn’t matter – people are moving around and I hardly slept anyway- now I have to pee so that settles it. I’m up.

It’s a perfect temperature outside with a light breeze but it’s not really cool for this early in the morning. Yes. It’s going to be a hot day.

5:10 am: “Five minutes to ride start”

Sun is just coming up over camp. We are on the ‘viewing deck’ waiting to see the start of the 100 before heading off to vet check 1.

6:17am: ready at vet check 1- bird haven! First riders should start coming through in the next 45 minutes.

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7:02am: still waiting for our first rider. Some years they start arriving around 6:30… Everyone must be riding conservatively concerned about the heat to come.

8:18 am: most of the 100 milers have come through. We’ve pulled about 3 horses due to lameness issues- the volunteer farriers are busy with lost shoes and some of the booted folks have already put on their spares. It’s rough terrain. One horse had a rider option pull when his urine came out dark coffee colored.

Madison is working with the head vet Julia and she doesn’t do a lot of scribing but she gets to go on the interesting or questionable cases.

The 50s are up next and we have a little lull. Sitting down feels good as it’s still very early. Gotta conserve.

8:21am: first 50 miler comes in.

No- actually this 50 miler is checking in to check out, she’s convinced her horse is ‘not right’ and took a short cut in to have a vet look her over then do a rider option pull. So…

8:35 am: and now we have the first 50.

10:04 am: we’ve seen all the 100s and most of the 50s. Some of the vet teams pack up now and disperse into the other vet check stations. Madison left with Julia a while back – I’m sure she’s having a great day.

So far a cloudcover has kept the temps down and there’s a slight breeze. It’s still early though.

11:43am: is it not even noon yet? We’ve seen most of the horses once and are now waiting for the 50s to come back through on the way in. We’ve had around 10 horses pulled and lots more shoe trouble as the trail is rough but the clouds have held the temps down and the horses and riders are doing better than expected. Here are the last two 25 milers- gotta go…..

12:53pm: we’ve made it past noon and there’s a long lull waiting for the 50s to come back through.

2:23pm: first 50 milers makes it back to camp. Her horse looks great and she’s doing well- slightly stiff in its rear and slightly dehydrated but it’s gotten hot and is to be expected… She only has 6 miles to go and the next horse appears to be pretty far back. She made it so quickly from the previous check there were some raised eyebrows as to how exactly she moved that fast and looks so good.

4:14pm: seen the bulk of the 50s and the heat has really set in. The horses are looking hot and tired but we haven’t had to pull any yet. Just heard one of the 25s didn’t complete due to tying up and needed fluid treatment.

I’m learning a lot about what horses look like- what is ok and what is troubling… Especially from seeing them come through early then on their way in to finish. From our vet check they have only 6 miles to finish. I look forward to seeing the 100s and what these horses look like.

6:24 pm: all the 50s are through and the heat did wreak havoc in the afternoon. I have been collecting the pull sheets and we have 10 from the afternoon which my vet says is the most pulls he’s seen at this point of the race. It’s really useful to see what they horses look like when they aren’t ‘fit to continue’. Some really minor and some more serious.

8:05pm: had a little dinner break where Sarah and I went back to the bunkhouse bathroom and washed faces and brushed teeth to freshen up and then a little quick BBQ at base camp. It’s dusky and there’s thunder in the distance. The 100 milers are not into Laurel Run yet so they have another solid 90 minutes before even the fastest ones will make it back to us in Bird Haven. It’s a light sprinkle right now and we’ve lost our pop-up tent as the vet check station is only expecting 20 riders or less (those left of the original 28) and they try to break down as much as possible till the end of the night.

9:05pm: Madison and Julie (the head vet) return and we talk about how the day has gone. More pulls than normal today through the afternoon as horses and riders suffered from the heat and humidity.

You guys were MEAN she exclaims when she sees all the pulled rider cards.

But on a more serious note there were more than a few instances of teams where the horses were seriously struggling to recover. There was also a seasoned rider-vet whose horse got a cut at the digital artery on a rough patch of trail and the horse was loosing dangerous amounts of blood through the vet wrap pad bandage and was ambulanced to Leesburg where the positive outcome seemed questionable.

Madison is having a blast and Julie asked if she can take her home so that seems to be a great team. When I told her she can’t steal away my crew before I’ve even participated Julia assured me that Madison would make a fantastic crew member and thought it was brilliant!

9:27pm: first of the 100 milers made it to the final away vet check here at bird haven. They look fantastic – both the riders and the horses. They are in good spirits and their horses look better than many of the 50mile horses we saw earlier. Lots of excitement as we help the front runners through the vetting and a short 20 minute hold and cheer them on to their final 6 miles to finish.

11:47pm: almost midnight. two more horses arrive at bird haven as we are leaving for the finish line for final vet checks.

That’s the end of my cell phone service and I’m signing off for the day. I’ve been up for over 20 hours now and feel remarkably good… Lots of activity helps. Off to see them come in at the finish-

I’ll check in with a recap tomorrow!

The OD … Take 1

Friday, June 12, 2015: 10:06pm

In my top bunk in the bunkhouse a little too wired to think of sleep.

We left around 8:30 am and drove beautiful back roads through the Virginias to arrive in Oarkney Springs in time to help set up for the volunteer lunch. Madison got lots of input from the vets at lunch on the best way to get into vet school and we headed off to work the vet-in.

What fun to see the parade of horses coming through to have their pre-ride check in. I am assigned one of the ‘goon-squad’ vets which means that if a vet has reason to consider pulling a horse they call in at least three other vets to check the horse more carefully. This way it’s a group decision to pull a horse and the rider gets all benefit of the doubt. In 168 horses that came through this afternoon only two went before the ‘goon-squad’ and one was passed (lameness seemed to work itself out and the horse got a green light) the other horse also had a potential lameness and the vets unanimously agreed to pull the horse. The seasoned rider was disappointed but had no interest in pushing the issue. Generally the endurance folks don’t want to hurt their horses.

This is the hottest and most humid weather the OD has seen in years and the vets are all pretty concerned about the horses and riders. It’s a tough ride both in elevation and technically. Most of the vets believe there will be a smaller completion rate than usual.

We had a lovely walk around camp and found my friend from the No Frills: Pascale and her trick horse Majiic. She showed us his bow, wave and smile on command.

We also checked in with the ride and tie folks and got more information about that- I am really excited about getting into one of those!

Then we stopped to ask about a brand on a horse that turned out to be a mustang mare from a Nevada herd. We chatted a long time with her and learned a lot about the horse and her training. (That’s a secret dream of mine that may never come to fruition – to adopt a mustang! At the moment I have exactly how many horses I need and basically I need to wait for one to die before adding one to the herd).

We had a nice shower and tucked into the bunkhouse where I know 3:30am will come too soon to bring about the over 24 hour work day ahead. I can’t even imagine what that will be like right now, but I’m game. Thankfully Sarah and Madison are having about as much fun or more than I am! It’s been a gift to be able to have someone to share this experience with who is as excited about it as I am.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings! We’re game…

Hidalgo

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

I don’t watch many movies. We go to a movie theater about once a year. We don’t have television reception at home either. However we do subscribe to Netflix and choose a series or two and watch them on DVD as we have indoor time (which is kind of rare for us). I had enough people tell me they couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen Hidalgo that I broke the mold and ordered a movie from Netflix.

Khaleesi's Daddy "Hidalgo" — Khaleesi’s Daddy “Hidalgo”

I assume “everyone” has already seen this 2004 movie about a paint mustang that was shipped in the 1890s to the middle east to take Frank Hopkins on the 3,000 mile horse race across the desert. I don’t know a lot about Frank Hopkins, but I have read that he was one of the greatest American Endurance riders and a champion of the mustang.

Plus… Khaleesi’s daddy is a paint horse named Hidalgo. So I had to watch it.

It was a fun movie- I enjoyed that it was based on a true story. I loved the mustang they used. I love to fantasize that there is some fateful reason Apple Horse Farm took on a Paint stallion (Saddlebred x Racking horse) in 2004 and decided to name him Hidalgo, and that means that Khaleesi is destined to be a great endurance competitor.

The jury is certainly still out with her!

Meanwhile I went for a really lovely ride with my future-crew extrordinaire Madison this week and she had a blast on Faygo the fine while I continued my Khaleesi training. This ride was the first time I used the heart rate monitor on Khaleesi- mostly to see if it would work and just watch what it told me. The good news is she has fantastic cardio. We can trot along at a nice pace (6-8mph) and if it’s flat she won’t rise above about 100-110 bpm. Uphill she might go up to 130, but every time we’d walk a stretch or flatten out, her heart rate went down quickly. I never saw her really work hard on the ride, and though we weren’t racing, we moved out a lot.

Also- we didn’t lose one good boot in the 10 miles we traveled!

No kicking attempts, but she did balk at me twice refusing to go forward without some serious pressure. I’m still not sure why she does this, but it NEVER happens on the loop headed home. This refusing to move forward seems to be at a standstill- it doesn’t seem to be improving or getting worse. I always win at some point. Madison said her mare would also do that sometimes- and begin backing up. She said one thing she tried was turning her around, then making her back the direction that they supposed to be going- the horse doesn’t like backing, so would turn forward and start moving on willingly after that. She still has to do it occasionally. I might try that next time!

I had hoped to do an alone ride before leaving for the Old Dominion ride this weekend, but turns out I’ve picked up some sort of stomach bug and just didn’t have it in me. I took the morning to rest instead and stay close to the bathroom. It seems mild enough- but speaking of fateful circumstances, I started a poison ivy rash yesterday, stomach bug today… I’m wondering if the universe is trying to keep me from volunteering!

Well…. I’m going!

Next blog will be about the OD ride… getting up at 3:30 am to watch the 5am start, and helping at the vet checks as the riders go through- no sleep for 24 hours. I’m SO excited, and also looking forward to spending more horse time with my crew!!

Manure on our Shoes

Sunday, June 7, 2015

One more small step: first overnight trip.

Douthat is a local state park with fantastic horse camping sites. It’s still in the county, barely an hour drive door to door, and has new covered stalls for the horses complete with buckets, water, and horse amenities like shovels and wheelbarrows and hay racks. The park is pretty although there are only about 6 miles of trails accessible to horses, but once you ride through into National Forest you can go just about anywhere if you’re looking for a longer ride. It offers lots of options and makes a great home-base if anyone is looking for good horse camping in our area.

We had a somewhat rough start to the day as we pulled into the almost empty campground to find our 3 camping sites were the farthest away you could get from the horse stalls. There were no maps of the site numbers available online when I reserved, so I just asked if they could be as close as available to the stalls. (Apparently the woman who helped with the reservations at the call center wasn’t paying attention). We drove back to the camp office to ask if there were any other sites available for the night- well, almost all of them and for a small fee we could switch. For what it’s worth, the Douthat Staff were fantastic and helpful.

Khaleesi tied to her stall while we set up and got ready for a ride

Then we had girth troubles- Laurie’s horses hadn’t been ridden since October and had gotten a bit fat over the winter, plus her gear wasn’t exactly set up yet for the riding season, so though they grabbed a handful of girths to be sure they would have whatever size they needed, most of the ones they grabbed were english rigging, and two of her three horses were using western saddles. They weren’t a perfect fit- but for a short easy ride would be fine.

Karin however had had help loading her trailer and they had completely missed bringing her cinch. Her saddle was also western and we had not one extra between us. She said she’d be fine with staying at camp with a glass of wine- but we were not going to let that happen!

This was not much of a problem for a group like ours- between everyone we fished out leather strings, a sturdy english girth and got to work. We rigged her up and crossed our fingers that she’d be good to go and except for one stop to tighten it up, she was fine!

Small issues out of the way we set out onto the trail.

We had a group of 7 riders so this was also our first “large” group ride. It was a really nice group of easy-going ladies with great horses. For the most part Khaleesi did really well on the ride. We led the pack to start, rode at the back, and also in the middle. She didn’t kick out at anyone although I’m sure she thought about it a few times. As the 9 mile, 3 hour ride was wrapping up she got into tired toddler stage again and refused to go in front, but she didn’t do anything truly wrong on the ride [which I’m constantly reminding myself she’s only done a handful of times- this was her 4th group trail ride…] and I’m happy with her progress.

As for the renegade boot saga… her back boots stayed on the whole trip. At one point she had a spook at a shadow in the woods (last few miles of the ride) and jumped back slightly twisting her front foot and the boot also twisted.

was it not tight enough? Her feet were just trimmed days ago, so maybe they need to be pulled in a bit tighter right after a trim than I’m used to the week before a trim.

At least we saw it immediately (thanks Madison!) and I hopped off and put it back on. We still haven’t had a ride where all 4 boots have stayed on perfectly the entire trip. On the positive side, I love how easy they are to deal with if they do come off, and how they seem to be handling the ‘abuse’ of our riding overall. The jury is still out if by next spring I’ll be ready to nail on some shoes and call it over, or if we’ll have it dialed in and be happy with the boot solution.

She didn’t love being in jail instead of turned out into a huge pasture, but she was a good sport. I gave her a ton of hay, and since she’d just been on a 9 mile ride with 6 other horses, she’d used some mental and physical energy up so was ok with relaxing alone for a while.

Though this ride was planned in my head for a good (easy) first overnight for Khaleesi, it was also a great chance for camaraderie with the best women rider-friends in the neighborhood, and it’s a good (easy) first camping trip for some of them too!

After our afternoon ride, we took care of the horses and settled into camp for some drinks and snacks and laughs.

My friend Karin and her beautiful Saddlebred mare “Fritzy” had never horse-camped before and I was so glad she came to join in. Karin is a great horse-mentor to me. Her horse was “born perfect” and is always a pleasure to watch as she calmly does whatever Karin asks her. They both carry themselves with lovely grace, and Karin’s smile shines the most genuine inner light I’ve ever seen. She is a trooper and slept on mats in her horse trailer with her cute little dog Nigel.

It was also Madison’s first camp out- Madison is my favorite 15-year old with beautiful blond wavy hair and a big laugh from a carefree joyous spirit. She is always up for anything and she and her mom have become great friends of mine. Because they live in Florida we don’t get to ride together as much as I’d like- but they visit often.

“hanging out” in our “bedroom”… we hung our hammocks in one of the empty horse stalls!

Madison and her mom are my crew in training for when we start really endurance riding and I can’t decide if I’ll be excited or disappointed if she gets the “bug” and starts riding with me herself and I have to find another willing horse-savvy group of folks to help me out! (In truth, I’d love to see her start endurance riding… she has the adventure spirit too!)

After drinks around camp we headed to the next reason Douthat is SO easy for us… the Lakeview Restaurant. The food is average, the wine is inexpensive, and the view is lovely. It’s a perfect way to end the day- no cooking and no camp dishes! Everyone can eat what they want, and the salad bar isn’t bad. The deck overlooks Douthat Lake and it was a beautiful night.

As I kicked a pile of Khaleesi’s poop from the trailer and then tried to clean off my shoes in the grass, I thought of a quote I clipped out and stuck to my fridge that talked about how many friends in life come and go… separated by lifestyles, geography, choices, ages… but there’s something about the horsewomen bond with that has staying power across those divisions. Somehow it doesn’t matter that our group spans in age from teens to 60s, in geography from the Mid-Atlantic to the far South. What bonds us is stronger. It’s the horse manure on our shoes.